The Ziggurat of Doom

MediaList Cut for Size

For Great Cognitive Dissonance, see:

Being John Malkovich (1999)
After Hours (1985)
Tampopo (1985)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Magnolia

For Great Slaughter, see:
Boondock Saints
Kill Bill I & II
Versus
Dawn of dog skin supplement

the Dead
Blade I and III
From Dusk till Dawn
John Carpenter’s Vampires

For Great Jubilation, see:
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Clue
Three Musketeers (Disney)
Monty Python: Holy Grail, Life of Brian, optionally others

For Great Justice, see:
Pulp Fiction
Dogma
Snatch

More good movies:
American Beauty
Lost in Translation

Oh, and here are some good sci-fi movies:
Even-Numbered Star Trek movies except Nemesis
Star Wars 4,5,6
Fifth Element

Anime:

El Hazard: Magnificent World
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Haibane Renmei
Azumanga Daioh
Escaflowne (movie and/or series)
FLCL
Great Teacher Onizuka
Read Or Die (TV and/or OAV)
Serial Experiments Lain
Voices of a Distant Star
Puni Puni Poemi
Dragon Half
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Last Exile
Kare Kano
Excel Saga
Midori no Hibi
Yakitate Japan
Otaku no Video
Ah! My Goddess (particularly the movie)
Tokyo Godfathers
Millenium Actress
My Neighbor Totoro
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Hellsing
Macross Plus
Macross Zero
Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex
Ghost in the Shell (both movies)
Akira (but really, read the manga; they’re much better)
Assemble Insert
Irresponsible Captain Tyler
Rurouni Kenshin (series, though the first OVA is better; the manga are much better than the series, IMO)

–Your mileage on any given anime title may vary; the above are at the least good within the context of their genre; we cannot guarantee the quality of anything you choose to watch dubbed instead of subtitled; most U.S. dubs are at best mediocre

If you feel like you’re missing particular anime context, watch a *few* episodes of the following, which range from okay to terrible, but are all quite popular:

Dragonball / Dragonball Z (random beat the crap out of you power-trippy action)
Sailor Moon (magical schoolgirls defeat badguys)
Any Gundam Series (giant robots) NOTE: though personally I like — one exception to the subs rule — the U.S. dub of the very first one: Mobile Suit Gundam, most of them are considerably better; like Gundam Zeta)
Ranma 1/2 and/or Urusei Yatsura (rendundant and long-winded romantic comedies)
La Blue Girl (WARNING: This is a pornographic anime, but if you want to know what the whole tentacle-porn thing is, well, it’s this)

The following is a list (in *very* vague priority order) of media useful for understanding Ziggurati context:
Invader Zim (TV)
Transmetropolitan (graphic novel series)
MacHall (webcomic)
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Sam & Fuzzy (webcomic)
Megatokyo (webcomic)
Any 4 or 5 anime titles from the anime list (Anime TV/OAV/Movie)
The Ziggurat Of Doom’s AMV Parade (ask, if you’re in town)
Nescaflowne (anime parody fandub)
Evangelion ReDeath (anime parody fandub, which kind of prerequires the Evangelion anime, though not necessarily)
This is Otakudom (anime parody fandub)
Sealab 2021 (TV)
Babylon 5 (TV)
Firefly (TV)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV, *NOT* the movie)
Mage: The Ascension (tabletop RPG)
South Park (TV)
Futurama (TV)
The Simpsons (TV)
Freakazoid (TV)
Exploitation Now (webcomic)
Otaku no Video (anime OAV)
MST3K (particularly Space Mutiny)
Monty Python’s Flying Circus

The priorities on the above list tend to fluctuate a bit through time. There are a number of unlisted things. Some of them are no longer the subject of that much Darmokism, but are listed anyway due to some manner of dynamic synergistic with our own.